Second Hand News

Today we bought a bike for our daughter Zoe, who just turned 15.  My first stop was Craigslist, where I found a gem of a find - a Raleigh Sprite 5 speed Cruiser.  Turns out it was an ad posted by Re-Cycle, the Minneapolis based second hand bike shop.  (www.re-cycle.com).

This works out very well for us because for openers we don't have to spend so much cash on a bike.  And since we bought from a shop we can trust we know that it has been tuned up and is ready to ride.  Turns out this was sold on consignment, and it's nice to know that we won't have to invest anything more into the bike for awhile. 

On a deeper level, we get to reuse a perfectly good bike rather than use our resources on having  a new one built from scratch (while saving the landfill a big hunk of metal and rubber).  I think it's important that we make smarter choices on what we do with our resources and I try to contribute to that any way I can.  And plus I am frugal by nature and always enjoy a deal!

In any case, for those in Minneapolis, check out Re-Cycle at 2327 Hennepin Ave in Uptown.  In addition there are shops all over the U.S. as well.  The owner and employees are extremely helpful and it's a nice, open, clean shop.